The Ravens felt disrespected by being underdogs heading into their game against the 49ers and their performance in a 33-19 road win means they are unlikely to be on the wrong side of a point spread again this season.
On Wednesday, quarterback Lamar Jackson said that presents a new set of challenges for the team. They were gunning to prove people wrong on Christmas night and now they need to make sure that they don’t start buying into the hype in a way that lessens the edge they carried with them into that game.
“Keeping a level head is the most important thing for us right now, because now the narrative is changing,” Jackson said, via a transcript from the team. “It was just, ‘This team is . . . The Ravens; we don’t know about the Ravens.’ Now it’s, ‘Oh, they’re the No. 1 team.’ So, we’re not paying [any] mind to that. I feel like that’s bait — that’s clickbait. And like I said, we’re trying to make it to February, so we’re going to take it a game at a time.”
Jackson is a one-time MVP and is now the frontrunner for this season’s award, but said he “absolutely, absolutely” feels like he has something to prove and that he believes the team has “a bunch of guys who’ve been doubted” long enough to help keep their mindset in the right place as they try to make a run to the third Super Bowl title in franchise history.
